Tron shift knob mod

[Grinch]

Hey guys,

First, I've been reading this website's forums a lot lately and it's been very helpful in a number of areas, so thanks in advance for all the great feedback and help.
I have a 4th gen 2004 SR5.
Here's the scoop: after reading through some of the cool shifter knob forums, I thought I was going to get one of the Lexus ones, but my wife said to look for something like Transformers or Bit from Tron. I saw some decent custom Transformers ones, but didn't see anything for Bit from Tron....but after looking at Tron I got the idea to do it from the old school Tron arcade game joystick. So the goal is to get that baby mounted as my shift knob and have some black lights pointed at it to light it up! I'm going to post some pics and the steps I've taken so far, and the then the finale ones in one day after the JB Weld have cemented the other side. The main question I have and kind of the reason I'm posting is I need to have the 3 LED black (UV) lights pointed at the joystick. They are coming out of one of those center tab/spacers right behind the shifter where I guess the DAC switch would usually be (what's the technical term for the tab/spacer btw???). I'd like to have kind of an "L" shape for them so that they point at the joystick, but is covered up with some kind of overhead where the driver doesn't actually see them....Any ideas?...and now for the steps I've done so far:

Here's the main list of items needed:
Tron controller (Groovygamegear.com), trigger(Groovygamegear.com), Tron insert(just Google and you'll find), JB Weld (Home Depot), 2 3/8" washers, 1 M8x1.25 hex nut, 3 UV 5mm LEDs (Radio Shack...note that these are 3.2v-3.8v max), Cigarette Lighter car power adapter that takes 12v down to 3v (Radio Shack), 12v cigarette lighter accessory outlet (Radio Shack)




Sorry I didn't take pics of the JB Weld stuff, but:
--JB Weld the 2 washers and the nut together. Try and make sure they are not overlapping and they are all even. You're going to be putting the nut on top of the two washers, so it goes: washer, washer, nut. It seemed like the nut only went on one way when I was screwing it into the gear shift stick, so make sure you have the right side on top. The nut will be on top closest to the trigger <see next post for pic of what I'm talking about>. Wait 15 hours for the Weld to get good and tight.
--After the 2 washers and nut are best friends, you're going to JB Weld them into the right half of the Tron joystick. This is because it's the side that is harder to get the washers into and you have to squeeze it into place to make it line up with the little grooves where the screws are supposed to go...again, see next post for pick of what I'm talking about. I actually tried to hold it in place forever, and it kept busting back out, so I got a wrench and am clamping it down that way so it stays in place overnight. Wait 15 hours.
--Put some more JB Weld on the washers and stick on the other side of the joystick. At this point, you're taking the rubber band off the trigger and putting the Tron insert in as well. Let it sit for 15 hours again.
--Assuming all lighting is done, just screw it into the the gear shift stick...that's my plan any way ...moving on to lighting.

I tapped into some extra cable that was under the plastic where the shifter is. It was taped up next to the cigarette lighter cable. I read in another thread that the pink with blue stripe cable was power and that the W/B was ground, so I just cut those two wires from that connector and crimped and heat shrinked those guys together to the accessory outlet after running the accessory outlet's cable from my center console into the area where the shifter is (I had a hole there I had created when I was putting in my XM stuff). W/B went to the black wire and P/B went to the red wire.


Now it was time for the LEDs. I cut some cables to solder to the LEDs to then connect altogether into a heat shrinked connector to the cigarette lighter adapter. See pic for what I used.


The longer cable for the LEDs is the positive...I may be wrong, but one blew up on me when trying it the other way, so I just played it safe and considered that the positive and connected some 16 gauge??? wires to each side...I used red for positive and black for negative...soldered them to the LEDs.


I ran the cigarette lighter adapter's black and black/white cables through that hole out of the center console into the shifting area. I then took all 3 red lines from the LEDs and twisted them together, put them into one of the heat shrink crimp connectors that connected to the black cable of the cigarette lighter adapter (OH YA, I FORGOT TO MENTION I SNIPPED OFF THE END OF THE WIRED WHERE THE 2 FEMALE PORTS ARE ON THAT ADAPTER IN ORDER TO EXPOSE THE WIRES TO STRIP AND CONNECT TO). I did the same for the black wires for the LEDs but connected them to the black/white cable of the adapter.


Then I just connected the cig lighter adapter into the accessory outlet (they're both in my center console), and boom, UV lights. I also have the ability to turn them off anytime I want too by just unplugging it from the outlet.


I'll post the pics of the joystick when done and in the car. Right now, if someone would be so kind as to give some suggestions on how to have something fit in that center spacer tab where the DAC switch usually is; that will cover the lights but allow me to point them towards the shifter, it would be most appreciated. I'm think of something like bendable aluminum that would hover over from the little tray behind it sitting there by some sticky tape?...

Thanks.

 

[Grinch]

Here's the pic of the washers with the nut on the right side of the joystick.

 

[gaterose]

Wow I don't know if I've seen anything like that... Pretty interesting setup.

Why not get one of the cheap flexible led flashlights from the checkout isle at wal-mart, solder your UV LEDs in place of the white ones it comes with. Or put the UVs inside the plastic case of the shifter?

edit: don't know what you plan to do with the trigger but that might be a cool switch to turn the UVs off.

 

[Grinch]

Thanks gaterose. I might check into the flexible material...not sure about that particular one, but some kind of flexible material that you can bend like that makes sense. To answer your question, I didn't put them into the shifter for a couple reasons: once the washers are in there, there's not really a way to get the wires to come down through that, and second, even if I go them out from the side through one of the screw holes not in use, there's not a great way to run the cables from the shifter...they would be exposed and I didn't see a way to make it look clean.

I wanted to actually get some kind of sound box and wire up the trigger to old school Tron sounds like when he fires discs or the tank shoots or the light cycles go faster, but again, it came down to those wires. Creating a trigger to turn the lights off might be a little out of my reach of skillset anyway.

Thanks.

 

[gaterose]

you could drill a hole in the washers, run thinner gauge wire, and run it down the shift handle then cover that with shrink wrap or another type of wire cover. then run that under the silver plastic cover (with the gear display) LEDs don't usually draw much power and don't require heavy wire.
neither would an old school small speaker with tron sounds like you're talking about. you could prolly find one of those old key chains that makes the sound and just replace the battery when it goes dead (not wiring it into the car wiring). It wouldn't be all that difficult and wiring is just completing a circuit, it looks like that trigger already has terminals


I was talking about a flashlight similar to this or this with the base removed

 

[RallyeFan43]

*subscribes*

Really excited to see how this turns out. I'm a big TRON fan and this looks awesome so far. There are guys with Transformers shifters out there??? Apparently I need to take a look at the shifter knob forums you mentioned.

 

[Grinch]

The 3/8" washers have been a pain. I've had to do some serious dremeling to get them to fit right. The problem is any that were a size down were too small and it was hard to tell what would actually fit right in the joystick. so I'll say, if I had dremeled both sides of the joystick down a little first, then it would have worked a lot nicer. As it stands, I'm actually dremeling only one side along with some of the washer to get it to fit right.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

interested to see where you go with this

 

[kylebacc]

Definitely not my sort of thing, but subscribed to see your progression. Cool idea, for someone who is into TRON. I think if you can make the leds go inside of them the way gaterose described, that would be even better.

 

[Grinch]

I think I'm finished with the lights. I decided to stick with what I had vs. running them up the controller. I took some old flexible tubing I had used for running wire back in the day and spray painted it black. I then cut 4 snips at the bottom of it to be able to squeeze it into that space in the middle then yanked it down and ran the 3 LED up it and pointed it towards the shifter. It seems fairly inconspicuous, not perfect, but I think it will do nicely. I ended up breaking the washers off by accident on one half when I was messing around with screwing it in before welding it to the other half, so I have to redo the first half again...Here are some pics.

 

[Grinch]

Hey guys, looking for advice on this sound board I have here..check the pics. the way it works is that little magnet looking thing touches the circular gold looking leads in the middle and the sound plays. There's a button on the side that allows it to record, but it doesn't require the button on top to press down to do it. So wiring up the trigger is easy, but where should solder the two wires from the controller to on this board, and would it require taping that magnet looking piece down constantly? I was thinking about just soldering the wires right to where the two green lines are on each side of the gold circle in the middle...then when I click the trigger, that would complete the circuit??
The power is no issue as 2 1.5v AA batteries are what make it work, so I'm guessing that's 3v which means I can tap right into what I'm using for the LEDs...if I can get this sound thing to work, I'll hook that up, and that would be sweet...hahaaha.
Thanks in advance.

 

[gaterose]

I think the magnet just completes the circuit when the button is pressed doesn't it?

So I think you should solder one lead to the left half of the gold stuff and one lead to the right, just try it by connecting a wire between the two first to see if that completes the circuit and makes sound

 

[Grinch]

I have two wires coming from the switch: one to each lead. if I tap on the gold middle part with even just one of them, it activates sound, however, if I hold there and try to click the switch, it will not play sound...only happens if take the wire off and then tap it again. Not sure why there are two leads in this case if only one is needed and also, can't get the switch to make it play, only when touching and releasing.

 

[Grinch]

I meant the trigger, not switch.

 

[gaterose]

does it matter where you touch? are you touching the entire gold thing with the wire? The gold part looks like it is actually 2 connections and the circuit is complete when the two separate parts of the gold are connected (i.e. R3 & R2 from the picture) by pressing the button. there is sort of a maze between the 2 gold strands that keeps it from being always on. That's how it looks anyway..

also you may be able to just use the red or black leads on the board, keeping the button pressed always (maybe by taping it down, or taping wire onto of the gold pad), but the circuit is only active when your trigger completes the power circuit going to the entire board.

 

[Grinch]

I got the sound to work. Just mentioning it real quick. I put the magnet thing on the gold center to complete the circuit. I then touched one wire from the trigger attached to one lead of the trigger's switch (which is a momentary on switch...non-latching btw) to the postive electricity area, then the other to the negative side and the trigger is now able to make sound play. I've since redone the washers and nut 3 times and this time it's looking good. trigger is soldered up with wire and I've drilled a hole through the washers to run the sound wire through. I can't figure out a way to tap into the existing 3v adapter since I think if I do, it will end up shutting the black lights off and only activate upon trigger, so I think I'll need a whole new set of 12v accessory outlet and adapter and tap into the cigarette lighter right next to the shifter.

 

[gaterose]

The trigger will only control the lights if they are connected on the back side (the side that only has power with the trigger pressed). The other side of the trigger will always have power flowing, just like the LEDs.

 

[Grinch]

Just to let you know, the lights will stay on with the trigger using the same power source, but when you pull the trigger, the lights will go off and then back on....anyway, I went from having everything working, to it all breaking apart
Unfortunately, the sound only seems to work when the voltage is set to 4.5v, and if I do that then the LEDs are super bright and awesome, but they fade out within like half an hour and they're done. I'll have to have different power sources for each with different voltage adapters for each.

Does anyone know anything stronger than JB Weld? I've redone the nut on the washer deal 5 times and it just doesn't seem to hold after getting it screwed on to the shifter thread. It keeps breaking off from the washer.